Has anyone successfully implemented the JSF Viewer with Facelets?

Question

We have recently started integrating Crystal into one of our web apps that is using JSF + Facelets + Seam.
I've built a taglib for the jsf viewer and configured it in web.xml and faces-config. I'm pulling an IReportSource from a backing bean using com.crystaldecisions.reports.sdk.ReportClientDocument  and that is using a .rpt file stored on a directory. This all seems to be working, as I can step through the code and see the IReportSource being generated.
However, when the page loads, I am seeing the crystal javascript being converted in the page source, but nothing is loading on the page. 
Has anyone seen an issue similar to this tied to Facelets? I've seen numerous documentation on Crystal and JSP, but very little on JSF  or Facelets.
Has anyone been able to get a setup like this or similar to work properly?
I've also noticed an error when adding the viewer:
java.io.IOException: Recover report client document state failed.
at com.crystaldecisions.sdk.occa.report.application.ReportClientDocument.readExternal(SourceFile:1492)
at com.crystaldecisions.sdk.occa.report.application.AdvancedReportSource.readExternal(SourceFile:131)
at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readExternalData(ObjectInputStream.java:1792)
I believe this to be related to me switching over to the serializable ReportClientDocument: com.crystaldecisions.sdk.occa.report.application.ReportClientDocument  versus using the nonserializable version.
When using the non-serializable version, I am seeing a constructor issue with the JPEReportSource
Exception: java.io.InvalidClassException: com.crystaldecisions.reports.reportengineinterface.JPEReportSource; no valid constructor
Has anyone seen this issue before or able to offer any suggestions?

Answer 1

Well, according to the tutorials I have seen on the internet, I believe CrystalReport was successfully implemented and tested with jsp, to have it working with Facelets, we need to do a little bit of work around. We need to make a new JSF custom component and assign it to an external renderer. then we can use it to view the report
please follow these and it should work after then,
1- bring the following jars into your libs
commons-configuration-1.2.jar
Concurrent.jar
CrystalCommon.jar
CrystalContentModels.jar
CrystalDatabaseConnectors.jar
CrystalFormulas.jar
CrystalQueryEngine.jar
CrystalReportEngine.jar
CrystalReportingCommon.jar
icu4j.jar
jrcadapter.jar
jrcerom.jar
keycodeDecoder.jar
MetafileRenderer.jar
rasapp.jar
rascore.jar
rpoifs.jar
serialization.jar
URIUtil.jar
webreporting.jar
webreporting-jsf.jar
xercesImpl.jar
xml-apis.jar
2- bring the folder "crystalreportviewers115" right under the "WebContent".
3- implement the custom FacesComponent and make it extend the "UIReportPageViewer" as follows;
import packagename.CustomReportRenderer;
@FacesComponent ("packagename.newReportViewer")
public class UIReportViewer extends com.crystaldecisions.report.web.jsf.UIReportPageViewer implements Serializable{
    public UIReportViewer () {
        this.setRendererType("packagename.CustomReportRenderer");
4- implement the renderer and make it extend the "ViewerHtmlRenderer" as follows;
@FacesRenderer(componentFamily="CrystalReports.DHTMLViewer", rendererType="packagename.CustomReportRenderer")
public class CustomReportRenderer extends com.crystaldecisions.report.web.jsf.ViewerHtmlRenderer implements Serializable {
5- make a new tag library xml file next to the web.xml so the application can find the tag configurations. name it "taglib.xml" and add the following inside it;
<facelet-taglib xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
    version="2.0">
    <namespace>http://new-jsf-custom-components/</namespace>
    <tag>
        <tag-name>ReportViewer</tag-name>
        <component>
            <component-type>packagename.newReportViewer</component-type>
            <renderer-type>packagename.CustomReportRenderer</renderer-type>
        </component>
    </tag>
</facelet-taglib>
6- configure the web.xml with the following
  <context-param>
        <description>
        State saving method: 'client' or 'server' (=default). See JSF Specification 2.5.2</description>
        <param-name>javax.faces.STATE_SAVING_METHOD</param-name>
        <param-value>server</param-value>
    </context-param>
    <context-param>
          <param-name>javax.faces.FACELETS_LIBRARIES</param-name>
        <param-value>/WEB-INF/taglib.xml</param-value>
    </context-param>
    <context-param>
        <param-name>crystal_image_uri</param-name>
        <param-value>../../crystalreportviewers115</param-value>
    </context-param>
7- implement the reportViewer.xhtml and make sure you have the following;
- in the tag libraries add the namespace schema xmlns:crystalnmcps="http://new-jsf-custom-components/"
- add the new reportViewer component
<crystalnmcps:ReportViewer reportSource="#{youController.reportSource}"  displayToolbarLogo="false" parameterFields="#{youController.parameterFields}"  allowParameterPrompting="false" />
Now run your app.
I hope this helps. good luck